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LucyP
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| Posted: March 16 2011 at 6:50am | IP Logged
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...have you ever been recognised in "real life"?
We were at a church service this weekend, and a gentleman came up to us and said "you're a blogger aren't you?" - it took me a moment to catch on, and then he was commenting on recognising my children from my blog.
I was rather shocked. I don't try to drive up traffic and just see it as a journal for me, a creative outlet and a way to connect with some online friends and friends who live away. So it was a bit freaky for me that someone I had never met from our diocese "knew" us and I wonder if anyone in our parish or among our community has found the blog too 
Despite blogging, which I guess can seem a narcisstic (sp?) thing to do, I do actually hate attracting attention and felt rather anxious, but DH calmed me down. I don't use the children's real names or real nicknames on the blog but I do show photos, partly because they love having the photos on the blog and partly because I like it when a friend comments how beautiful they are 
I guess being spotted must be pretty common, and I wondered how other people felt and if it changed the way you blogged?
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Servant2theKing
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| Posted: March 16 2011 at 10:16am | IP Logged
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Lucy, I can see how that would be unsettling. I've noticed some BLOGers choose to cut the faces from images on their BLOG for greater anonymity, especially IRL.
I don't BLOG but had a similarly unsettling experience when a man in the pew in front of us handed me a business card (from a local newspaper), during Mass on Ash Wednesday. He showed me a picture on his camera that he had taken of our son, for an article on Ash Wednesday...I was taken aback at the intrusion while praying and also felt uncomfortable being approached by a total stranger, especially during Mass. I think modern technology has erased some of those natural boundaries that used to exist when information wasn't so far-reaching and instantaneous.
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All for Christ, our Saviour and King, servant
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JamieCarin
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| Posted: March 16 2011 at 11:24am | IP Logged
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I have been recognized at a local homeschool event. When I was registering the woman said, "Ohhh I recognize you! I read your blog" Totally didn't bother me since I know she is a good Catholic mom and homeschooler etc. But in general I tend to not worry about these things.
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Wife to Claudio for 9yrs, Mom to Ben (4), and Annabella (almost 3), and Beatrice (born 1/17/12)
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MaryM
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| Posted: March 16 2011 at 11:27am | IP Logged
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I would be surprised to be recognized locally. I figure the only local people who read are people who do know me anyway. I don't think I have any appeal beyond the Catholic homeschool network anyway. So for a stranger to recognize me or my kids would worry me a little.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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JennGM
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| Posted: March 16 2011 at 11:29am | IP Logged
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I guess I would have been suprised if a man came to me and recognized me as a blog. I'm not worried though. I have had people recognize me and my blog.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Grace&Chaos
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| Posted: March 16 2011 at 11:45am | IP Logged
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Lucy, I'm so glad you posted about your experience. I was just having a conversation with my dh about blogging the other day. He is certainly very much for anonymity and I'm not sure he took me seriously. But I've been thinking about it. Gives me more to think about and how to set it up  (if I do).
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Jenny
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Christine
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| Posted: March 17 2011 at 10:55am | IP Logged
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The first time that someone recognized me and one of my daughters was while I was shopping. A woman who my husband speaks to occasionally via his job came up to us and said, "Oh, you're _______'s wife. I recognize your daughter from your blog. I'm _____." We now exchange Christmas cards with her family and she gives us clothes that her children have outgrown. Other people who have since recognized me or my children from my blog have also usually become friends. 
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Christine
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doris
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This happened to me and it freaked me out. In the end I took down most of my blog. I was pretty open on the blog about some quite personal issues and it made me realise that that was perhaps rather naive.
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Home educating in London, UK with dd (2000) ds (2002), dd (2004), ds (2008) and dd (2011).
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marianhome
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| Posted: April 06 2011 at 6:46am | IP Logged
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I have come back and forth several time with the issue too.
On one hand I do enjoy posting and reading other's peoples blogs. Is a way to get inspired and to connect with others, often in the blogs I put things that I may otherwise not say in a short conversation, is like having plenty of time to think and talk about something and then a post comes up with the reflections on that conversation, like a journal.
But on the other hand, for that same reason it can leave you very vulnerable, because people may know of things and you are not aware of the depth in this unilateral way.
The most dangerous things via internet that I found though is the lack of emotional exchange, since we are not face to face, or even hear our voices as we read, misunderstandings with the writings happen often, something you say with one attittude is understood with another, and we can offend people without intending it. One way to solve this, of course is the emoticons  but we could also retrieve the old fashion way of speaking or writing, which gave ample prelude and afterthought of the main message, conveying all kinds of softer roads around the main point and allwoing the reader to be reached with a better fairness. I think we may be too hard on this electronic era...
Finally another downpoint of it, is that we may feel filled with these electronics conversations and obliterate or reduce the cultivation of real friendships and relationships. I think this may be one way the devil seeks to disunite us.
If somebody came up to me and talk about my blog making me feel uncomfortable, I would start erasing all the pictures of my family and leave it as anonymous as I could...that is just my two cents.
raquel
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http://marianhomestead.blogspot.com
Raquel&David, Maria 8, Rebecca 6, Samuel 4, and early pregnancy babies in heaven.
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: If you blog or have blogged...
